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Results 1 - 6 of 140  Toluna.com - Popular Polls and Opinions
 
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Click to Vote thomas.mellorCreated By thomas.mell..., Voters: 828

Video WidgetAre you loving this song?
of course i am now shaking my bootie!, nooooooo
 OR 
Click to Vote merrycherryCreated By merrycherry, Voters: 355

Video WidgetWhat do you think of this Evian advert?
Makes me Smile, Don't like it, Not bothered either way
Click to Vote toluna17Created By toluna17, Voters: 325

Video WidgetDo you know anyone who does this?
Maybe you need to show them this video! Enough said - I think it is fairly self explanatory!
suemelleyOpinion by suemelley
Maybe you need to show them this video!

Enough said - I think it is fairly self explanatory!
Opinion by You!
Give Opinion suemelleyCreated By suemelley, Opinions: 262

Video WidgetTorture on French TV Just look at this?
Well what do you think? Could you take part in this? I know I wouldn't, how about you?A disturbing French TV documentary has tried to...
leftfieldOpinion by leftfield
Well what do you think? Could you take part in this? I know I wouldn't, how about you?
A disturbing French TV documentary has tried to demonstrate how well-meaning people can be manipulated into becoming torturers or even executioners.
The hugely controversial Game of Death was broadcast in prime-time on a major terrestrial channel, France 2, on Wednesday.
It showed 80 people taking part in what they thought was a game show pilot.

As it was only a trial, they were told they wouldn't win anything, but they were given a nominal 40 euro fee.

Before the show, they signed contracts agreeing to inflict electric shocks on other contestants.

One by one, they were put in a studio resembling the sets of popular game shows.

They were then asked to zap a man they believed was another contestant whenever he failed to answer a question correctly - with increasingly powerful shocks of up to 380 volts.
Blind obedience Egged on by a glamorous presenter, cries of "punishment" from a studio audience and dramatic music, the overwhelming majority of the participants obeyed orders to continue delivering the shocks - despite the man's screams of agony and pleas for them to stop.
Psychiatrist
Eventually he fell silent, presumably because he had died or lost consciousness.

The contestants didn't know that the man, strapped in a chair inside a cubicle so they couldn't see him, was really an actor. There were no shocks and it was all an experiment to see how far they would go.

Only 16 of the 80 participants stopped before the ultimate, potentially lethal shock.

"No one expected this result," intoned a commentary. "Eighty per cent of the candidates went to the very end."

The show was billed as a warning against blindly obeying authority - and a critique of reality TV shows in which participants are humiliated or hurt.

Some of the participants smiled or laughed nervously as they delivered the shocks, although most were obviously stressed and troubled by the action.

'Terrifying power'

Many said they wanted to stop but were convinced by the presenter to continue.

The show was inspired by an experiment at Yale University in the 1960s by social psychologist Stanley Milgram.

He used similar methods to investigate how people could come to take part in mass murder.

Jean-Leon Beauvois, a psychologist who took part in the documentary, says he and other members of the team spent months analysing the results.

"When they signed the contract, participants were placed in the position of executioners," he said.

"These were people like others, not exceptional, but 80% of them let themselves be drawn into becoming torturers."

For Mr Beauvois, it showed the "terrifying power of TV".

The documentary asserted that most people are conditioned from childhood to obey.

It made the argument that only those with experience of rebelling can muster the strength to disobey orders from an authority figure - in this case the presenter, backed by pressure from the audience.

Manipulation

One contestant said afterwards that her grandparents had been Jewish Holocaust victims and she regretted that she'd obeyed orders to keep inflicting shocks.

Opinion by You!
Give Opinion leftfieldCreated By leftfield, Opinions: 24

Video WidgetFur real!!!!! A washing machine for dogs?
Yes thats what I said, I think it looks terrifying for the dog that is in the video don't you? But they are saying, it is for anyone who's...
leftfieldOpinion by leftfield
Yes thats what I said, I think it looks terrifying for the dog that is in the video don't you? But they are saying, it is for anyone who's ever chased a soap-covered dog around there is now a machine to wash dogs. Punch in your settings and in 35 minutes you get a clean, but slightly miffed,( or traumatised ) dog.

Opinion by You!
Give Opinion leftfieldCreated By leftfield, Opinions: 28

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